


The Gotham Girl Gang Gets a Dog

by feministbatman



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: F/F, Gotham Girl Gang, Implied HarperCass, harpercass - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 02:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7739365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feministbatman/pseuds/feministbatman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephanie and Cassandra bring a dog to Harper's apartment</p><p>Done for my quick & dirty drabble prompts</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gotham Girl Gang Gets a Dog

**Author's Note:**

> I recently accepted prompts for a few short unpolished fics while sick in bed and bored. This was done for StardustKR7 on tumblr. Happy reading.

There was a dog in Harper Row’s apartment.

It was a puppy, to be specific, a little mutt slipping around in the mud it had tracked on the floor with its oversized paws. Whether or not its black colour came from it’s fur or the dirt it was covered in Harper was unsure, though Cullen had insisted it _must_ be a purebred labrador before Harper had confined him to the couch corner while she dealt with the mess her two vigilante friends had brought into her home.

“If you get attached then I can’t make an unbiased decision,” she explained, pushing her brother onto the cushion while he reached towards the puppy with grabby hands. Stephanie Brown, who sat on the ground next to the dog, lifted his paws into the air to match the gesture while Cullen cooed from afar. Cassandra Cain was curled up by the windowsill they came through, picking at bits of fur that covered the fabric on her arms where she had cradled the animal before gently setting it on the ground and informing Harper that he would be living in her flat.

“I’m seventeen,” Harper muttered angrily. “I’m seventeen, and I have blue hair, so why do I somehow _always_ wind up having the be the responsible one…”

“It’s great that you’re keeping him Harper,” Stephanie said without breaking eye contact with the dog.

“I’m not keeping him. I can’t. I don’t have the money. I don’t have the-”

“So glad you’re keeping him,” Cass added, looking at the dog thoughtfully.

“ _I don’t have the time_ ,” Harper enunciated, grinding her teeth. “I have two full time jobs. The first one is paying the bills, the second one is being a parent. To Cullen. _Only Cullen_. And speaking of kids and the people who act like them, I don’t exactly have the bandwidth to deal with you two-”

“Three,” Cassandra corrected, pointing to the dog.

“ _Two_ ,” Harper said flatly, arms crossed. “The dog is not a human. The dog is a minor inconvenience that will be gone in five minutes. I don’t have the bandwidth to parent you _two_ and save you from yourselves every time you come across some stray-”

“Hey,” Stephanie interrupted indignantly, turning from the dog for the first time since stepping into the apartment to look Harper in the eye. “We don’t need you to save us from ourselves. We have Batman for that.”

Harper blinked twice. “Batman? That’s an option? You think he could get Wayne to build a new animal shelter or something? ‘Cause if this is only a temporary thing I might-”

Stephanie scrunched up her nose. “Ugh, no. I’m not talking about _that_ Batman,” she said, voice muffled as the dog attempted to lick her face. “I’m talking about _this_ Batman. He’s gonna be our new guard dog. Keep us nice and safe, right Batsy?”

Harper’s jaw dropped. “B- _Batman_? You named him… What?”

Stephanie was unresponsive, far too mesmerized with how the dog tried to lap at the air when she blew into his face to notice her former roommate’s horror. Harper turned to Cassandra, hoping for some sort of affirmation that naming the dog ‘Batman’ was a terrible plan regardless of who kept him, but when Cass grinned back she couldn’t shake the suspicion that it might have been her idea to begin with.

Harper squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose, resisting the urge to curse under her breath. When she regained her composure Cassandra was still smiling up at her, and Stephanie was on the ground while the dog tripped over himself to climb on top of her.

“Let me ask you this, okay?” Harper asked, struggling to maintain a neutral tone of voice. “Why is it that the dog can’t stay with either one of you? Why here in my garbage apartment and not in one of Tim’s robin nests?”

“He has, like, 50 of those! We might lose him!” Stephanie called out from the floor.

Harper rolled her eyes and turned to Cassandra expectantly.

Cass didn’t meet her gaze at first, choosing instead to smile to herself as she watched Batman stumble around the floor, chasing Stephanie’s wiggling fingers and nipping at her nails. Suddenly she rose, walked to Harper, and took her hand in her own.

Harper took a deep breath, slightly comforted by Cass’s soothing gesture. Her touch was warm, just like she remembered. It was the familiar weight of a grip that had led her around the world, that had squeezed her during tense moments at the Prague ballet. It was a hand that had been thrown around her shoulders when they were reunited in the face of certain death, and later on in victory against world domination.

Now those fingers were laced tightly around her own once again as Cassandra offered her final plea for why she ought to proceed in adopting a dog named Batman.

“He doesn’t need a hideout.” She said simply. “He needs… a home. And a family.”

Harper closed her eyes, trying to keep a poker face while she mentally cursed herself for being so incredibly easy. Cassandra saw through her immediately and snaked her hand up her arm and around her back to pull her into an embrace.

“Wait!” Stephanie bolted up. “Does this mean she’s doing it? Cass, is she?”

“She cheated,” Harper mumbled as she returned the hug. “She cheated and now I have a dog named Batman living in my apartment.”

Stephanie cheered, raising Batman in the air while he furiously wagged his tail at the turn of events. Cass pulled away from Harper and smiled brightly.

“Okay,” Harper murmured breathlessly, coughing once to clear her throat. “There are a couple of rules. First of all, Cass, you’re the human-Batman’s favorite, so I’m gonna need you to ask him for a donation. Vaccinations, food, toys, I need him to cover all of it. And speaking of the dark knight,” she added, struck with sudden inspiration, ”You have to talk about this dog all the time. Mention him by name. I want the real Batman to feel my presence even if I’m not on his little team.”

“The real Batman?” Stephanie feigned confusion, raising the dog to the side of her face to nuzzle. “You mean this little guy?”

“Perfect, Steph, I appreciate the initiative. Cullen, I can hear you, you can stop whining. Come on over and meet Batman.”

Cullen whooped and leapt off the couch to join Stephanie on the floor, emitting a strangled, high-pitched noise when Batman waddled over to him. Harper watched the two of the fawn over the animal for a few moments before leaning her head against Cassandra’s.

“You know,” she said quietly, “dogs are pack animals. So if you ever want to come over and watch a movie or something, bond with Batman, or, you know, whatever, it’s totally up to you-”

Cassandra reached over and squeezed Harper’s hand.

“Yes.”

Maybe, Harper thought, just maybe, having a dog might not be such a terrible idea after all.


End file.
